Police sketch of suspect The typical quiet of Sebring Avenue, a tree-lined residential street in Simi Valley, was shat- tered last Saturday night with the roar of gunfire when a fight be- tween 24-year-old Walter R. Vela and an unknown male es- calated into homicide.

The picturesque neighbor- hood became a murder scene when Vela left his girlfriend's vehicle to exchange words with a passenger in a black Lincoln. Police said the pair had argued earlier that night at a house party.

Vela, a 1999 graduate of Royal High School, had words with a person who witnesses de- scribed as a 5-foot-7-inch male Hispanic, 23 or 24 years old. Vela was then shot repeatedly as he tried to run away. The de- partment said the gunman is believed to have gang ties.

According to reports, Vela was at a party with his girl- friend and another woman when an argument broke out and the group decided to leave. Their car was followed by the black Lincoln. Vela's girlfriend pulled her car over near the 2300 block of Sebring, and Vela and another passenger left her car to confront the occupants of the Lincoln.

Vela, a former member of the Highlander soccer team, had spent the last four years working at a Thousand Oaks law firm. The killing was the first gun-re- lated homicide in Simi this year.

Police asked anyone with in- formation related to the crime to call the department at (805) 583- 6950.